


Bump In the Night

by potentiality_26



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith, Strike (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-11 15:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16477943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: He laughed.  “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”“I didn’t, until ten minutes ago,” Robin grumbled.  “I can’t believe I let them hire you to fight a ghost,” she continued, still at half volume.  She still hadn’t moved any further away from him.  “What is this?  An episode of Scooby Doo?”Strike takes a scary- but silly- case.





	Bump In the Night

**Author's Note:**

> The mystery solution here was shamelessly lifted from "The Case of the Laughing Mummy" from the 1954 Sherlock Holmes TV series, which has many funny ghost episodes to enjoy around Halloween. Speaking of which, happy Halloween!
> 
> Not Brit-picked.

“All right?” Strike asked Robin- or, rather, he asked the mouthful of her hair he’d gotten when he came back with coffee a moment ago and she startled so hard they collided. 

“Yes.”  She sounded annoyed- most likely with herself, knowing Robin.  She turned a little so his face was pressed to her temple.  He was very aware of his hand on her waist.  The cups of coffee, happily, remained on the table where he had set them before he caught her.  “No.”

He laughed.  “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”

“I didn’t, until ten minutes ago,” Robin grumbled.  “I can’t believe I let them hire you to fight a ghost,” she continued, still at half volume.  She still hadn’t moved any further away from him.  “What is this?  An episode of Scooby Doo?”

“It’s starting to look that way,” he replied.  When the man came to their offices to hire Strike to take care of the ghost haunting his house, they both had a good laugh but decided the money was too good to ignore.  Apparently, Robin wasn’t laughing now, and Strike couldn’t blame her for being jumpy.  The house was definitely creepy, and plenty of people who were absolute steel in normal life or death situations- such as "normal life or death situations" existed- got shaky when it came to ghosts and superstitions.  Whatever the real explanations for such things turned out to be, they definitely tapped into something in the human psyche that was ancient- and very, very scared.  Luckily, the real explanation for this one was on hand.  “I think I’ve found our costumed caretaker, anyway.  Noticed it on my trip down to the kitchen.”

He and Robin had staked out the room their client claimed to be most frightened of- one that had been host to a murder a century or so ago- but Strike thought the scary sounds their client had been hearing came from a more mundane source.

“C’mon,” he said.  He let go of Robin’s waist, but took her hand and led her downstairs to the hallway near the kitchen that lead back toward the stairs.  The hall was lined with windows that looked out into the garden, where the sky was clear and the moon bright.  “Can you see the shadow of the weather-vane there on the lawn?"

Robin nodded. 

"It's up on the roof now, but see how it moves when the wind blows and it-"

Robin winced at a sharp, eerie sound.

"-creaks?"

Looking sheepish, she nodded again. 

“I bet you anything that whenever the wind really kicks up it funnels that sound right down the old fireplaces of this house, especially in the room we were just in.  Add a history of crime and a dash of paranoia, and-” 

“We end up hired to fight a ghost.”

“Exactly.”

“This is how you know someone has too much money.”

Strike snorted.  “Well, in the morning we'll take care of it and tell our client you killed his ghost.”

Robin laughed, then started against him anew as the wind obligingly made the weather-vane wail until it sounded like the whole house was crying.  She shuddered, pressed very close against him.  “I think you’ll have to tell him it was you who killed the ghost.  I’ve been pretty useless.”

“No,” he said right away.  “You’ve been great.  You’ll have to be the one to get it down, anyway.  You may not have noticed, Robin, but I’ve only got one leg.”

She laughed again, brightly.  “Still.  I’ve been silly all night.”

“Maybe.  I have been thinking how great you must be to take to horror movies.”

Robin looked annoyed for a second, nose wrinkling, then she smiled again.  “You asking me out on a date, Cormoran Strike?”

“Could be,” he said.

She kept smiling.   

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](http://potentiality-26.tumblr.com).


End file.
